One of the museum’s iconic works is this painting by Delacroix depicting the Greek War of Independence against Turkey. From 1821 to 1830, this conflict mobilised part of the European intelligentsia including writers like Chateaubriand and Lord Byron.
This allegorical painting, contemporary with the events, portrays Greece in the guise of a young woman dressed in traditional Greek costume. She is standing among the bloody ruins from which we can see a canon emerging with the arm of a dead body still on it. The severed heads placed on the low wall and the Turk planting his standard in sign of domination, symbolise the desperation of the Greeks, described by Victor Hugo in 1826 in his poetry collection Les Orientales: “Brothers, smouldering Missolonghi is calling us”.
The same year, it was shown at the Lebrun gallery in Paris in support of the Hellenistic cause. The writer, standing in front of the dramatic scene, admired and praised the painter’s “proud, sweeping brush", the brushwork and drips of paint you can see in the foreground.
Delacroix found a captivating and modern subject in Greece and its revolts, heralding his most famous painting, Liberty Leading the People, made in 1830.
